America’s Cup: Clear as Mud

Jack Griffin of Cup Experience explains some of the activity now occurring with the America’s Cup, which culminates when the top Challenger advances to the America’s Cup Match against Oracle Team USA in a best of 13 series scheduled for June 17-27…

The Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series runs over two years – 2015 and 2016. The overall winner of the series will carry an advantage when the elimination schedule begins in May 2017, which could ultimately result in either the Defender of Challenger beginning the America’s Cup Match with a one point advantage. Yes, this is different. A complete explanation is in Part C of the Event Protocol.

Bermuda is getting ready to host the third and last stop on the America’s Cup World Series in 2015 (details). Teams are allowed two days of training in their AC45F – Thursday October 15 and practice races on Friday October 16. Racing for points takes place on Saturday and Sunday, October 16 and 17, with two races per day and double points for Sunday’s racing.

Overall Series Standings after two events
1. Emirates Team New Zealand, 72
2. Land Rover BAR, 65
3. Oracle Team USA, 64
4. SoftBank Team Japan, 56
5. Artemis Racing, 53
6. Groupama Team France , 50

The America’s Cup Event Authority (ACEA) announced at a Town Hall meeting in Bermuda last week that there will be six events in 2016:

February: Middle Eastern venue TBA (rumored to be Abu Dhabi)
May: New York City
June 10-12: Chicago
July 22-24: Portsmouth
August: Gothenburg
October: Tokyo

Important: only the events in Chicago and Portsmouth are confirmed. It is not clear why ACEA would announce dates for the other events, which are not yet confirmed. According to the Protocol, the February event is required to be confirmed in a few days – by September 30. Events in the last three quarters of 2016 need not be announced until December 1, 2015.

Additional details at Cup Experience.